Mountaineers Guard Well the Past

Appalachian native and scholar Karen McKinney critiques the late 19th century and early 20th century ethnographic writings ( James Mooney's Myths and Sacred Ceremonies of the Cherokee and Horace Kephart's Our Southern Highlanders among others)about the Native and White settler peoples of the Appalachian cultural region as colonial texts and examine the ethnographic writings of the Appalachian peoples themselves as they assimilate and transform colonial hegemonic assumptions. Of particular interest to her research are non-traditional materials like Harvey Miller's newspaper column, News from Pigeon Roost, and a collection of materials assembled by Cherokee university students, Stories of the Yunwi Tsunsdi (The Cherokee Little People).